2 Corinthians 11
Let Down in a Basket Through a Window in the Wall
← 2 Corinthians 10 · 2 Corinthians: all chapters · 2 Corinthians 12 →
Jealousy for the Community
11:1I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Indeed, do bear with me.
11:2For I am jealous for you with God’s jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
11:3But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds should be corrupted away from the simplicity and purity toward Christ.
11:4For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or you receive a different spirit that you did not receive, or a different good news that you did not accept, you bear with it well!
11:5For I reckon that I have fallen short in nothing of the exceedingly great apostles.
11:6Even if I am untrained in speech, I am not in knowledge; but in every way we have made it manifest to you in all things.
Free Proclamation and False Apostles
11:7Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed God’s good news to you free of charge?
11:8I plundered other Churches, taking wages for the ministry to you.
11:9And when I was present with you and in need, I burdened no one, for the brothers who came from Macedonia filled up my lack. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will keep myself so.
11:10The truth of Christ is in me: this boasting will not be silenced in me in the regions of Achaia.
11:11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.
11:12But what I do I will also continue to do, so that I may cut off the opportunity of those who desire an opportunity, so that in what they boast they may be found just as we are.
11:13For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
11:14And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.
11:15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness; their end will be according to their works.
The Foolish Boast
11:16Again I say, let no one think me foolish. But if otherwise, receive me even as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.
11:17What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
11:18Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.
11:19For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!
11:20For you bear with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes from you, if someone exalts himself, if someone strikes you in the face.
11:21To my dishonor I say it: as though we had been weak! But in whatever anyone dares—I speak in foolishness—I also dare.
Labors, Dangers, and Weakness
11:22Are they Hebrews? I also. Are they Israelites? I also. Are they Abraham’s offspring? I also.
11:23Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as one out of his mind: I more so—in labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in beatings beyond measure, in deaths often.
11:24From Jews five times I received forty less one.
11:25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked; I have spent a night and a day in the deep.
11:26In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, dangers of robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in a city, dangers in a wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers;
11:27in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
11:28Apart from the things outside, there is the pressure upon me day by day, the concern for all the Churches.
11:29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?
11:30If I must boast, I will boast of the things of my weakness.
11:31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed for the ages, knows that I am not lying.
11:32In Damascus the ethnarch under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes to seize me,
11:33and through a window I was lowered in a basket through the wall, and escaped his hands.
← 2 Corinthians 10 · 2 Corinthians: all chapters · 2 Corinthians 12 →
Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.